Statewide: the brief, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026
Hawaii's corrections department said in August 2025 that it had only partly done the one thing a June 2022 state audit asked it to fix: the formula it uses to work out how many corrections officers its prisons and jails need, according to the State Auditor's latest annual report on audit recommendations. [source: State Auditor Report No. 25-11, pp. 21–22]
In a written reply Nov. 4, 2026, Director Tommy Johnson said the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has fully implemented the Auditor's other recommendations from that report, but has not finished analyzing the shift relief factor itself. [source: Tommy Johnson, Director, Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, written statement to Hawaii Ledger, Nov. 4, 2026]
In Report No. 22-05, the State Auditor found that the then-Department of Public Safety used a "shift relief factor" that "was calculated more than five decades ago." [source: State Auditor Report No. 25-11, p. 21 (summarizing Report No. 22-05)]
Without an up-to-date factor, the Auditor wrote, the department "does not know the number of ACO positions it needs," and wardens "must routinely resort to 'band-aid' solutions," including closing posts, suspending inmate programs, reassigning staff and "excessive overtime." [source: State Auditor Report No. 25-11, p. 21]
The Auditor recommended updating the factor with actual officer leave and attendance data — including time officers are pulled from posts for training or temporary reassignments — instead of leave officers are legally entitled to take. [source: State Auditor Report No. 25-11, p. 22]
In 2023 the department self-reported the recommendation as "Not Implemented," saying using unscheduled leave would "bring instability in the calculations" and that its model needs three years of Hawaii Information Portal data, available only from August 2021. [source: State Auditor Report No. 25-11, pp. 21–22]
In 2024, by then reorganized as the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, it again reported "Not Implemented," a 30% officer vacancy rate as of June 30, 2024, and a factor of "1.65 per seven (7) day post and 1.25 per five (5) day post." [source: State Auditor Report No. 25-11, pp. 21–22]
It said seeking more positions under a new factor would be "unreasonable and fiscally irresponsible" while vacancies remain, and that the factor should be re-evaluated "once we are at 90% staffing level." [source: State Auditor Report No. 25-11, pp. 21–22]
On Aug. 29, 2025, the department self-reported the recommendation as "Partially Implemented," with no explanation of what changed. [source: State Auditor Report No. 25-11, pp. 21–22]
The department reported the audit's other three recommendations as implemented in 2023; the Auditor says these statuses are as reported by the department and are not based on an independent assessment. [source: State Auditor Report No. 25-11, pp. 3, 21–23]
Johnson said DCR "has addressed and fully implemented" the Auditor's recommendations "with the exception of conducting an analysis of the previously determined Shift Relief Factor (SRF)." [source: Tommy Johnson, Director, written statement to Hawaii Ledger, Nov. 4, 2026]
He said the factor is still 1.65 per seven-day post and 1.25 per five-day post, and that "the original method of calculation as explained in the Auditors report has not changed." [source: Tommy Johnson, Director, written statement to Hawaii Ledger, Nov. 4, 2026]
He cited the Family and Medical Leave Act, "abuse of sick leave," and collective-bargaining changes as factors that affect it, and wrote: "Based on our on-the-ground experience, DCR believes the DFR should be at least 2.0." [source: Tommy Johnson, Director, written statement to Hawaii Ledger, Nov. 4, 2026]
Johnson said DCR now has 1,535 authorized adult corrections officer positions statewide and 452 vacancies, a 29.5% vacancy rate. [source: Tommy Johnson, Director, written statement to Hawaii Ledger, Nov. 4, 2026]
Despite a "Champion of Change" campaign, a shorter academy, and advertising, he wrote, the department has "not seen a dramatic increase in individuals interested in a career in uniformed corrections." [source: Tommy Johnson, Director, written statement to Hawaii Ledger, Nov. 4, 2026]
He said DCR still holds that the factor should be re-evaluated at 90% staffing, and that none of its eight in-state facilities currently reaches that level. [source: Tommy Johnson, Director, written statement to Hawaii Ledger, Nov. 4, 2026]
Asked for fiscal-year overtime costs, Johnson gave calendar-year figures instead: $27,861,176.29 in 2024 and $29,128,198.75 in 2025. [source: Tommy Johnson, Director, written statement to Hawaii Ledger, Nov. 4, 2026]
He tied the overtime to the vacancies, to about 361 of 1,083 available officers on intermittent FMLA leave, and to an attendance plan under negotiation with the United Public Workers union. [source: Tommy Johnson, Director, written statement to Hawaii Ledger, Nov. 4, 2026]
The Office of Hawaiian Affairs has told the State Auditor that half of the recommendations from a 2023 audit of its real estate dealings remain open, according to the Auditor's latest annual report on audit recommendations. [source: State Auditor Report No. 25-11]
OHA also rejected one recommendation outright. [source: State Auditor Report No. 25-11, p. 37]
The Auditor's Report No. 25-11, published in November 2025, tracks how agencies have acted on audits from 2021 to 2023. [source: State Auditor Report No. 25-11]
The statuses for OHA are what OHA reported about itself. [source: State Auditor Report No. 25-11, pp. 2–3, 35–37]
The Auditor sends agencies a formal request for information and lists their answers as "self-reported". [source: State Auditor Report No. 25-11, pp. 2–3, 35–37]
In Report No. 23-04, the Auditor found that OHA had not adopted the foundational strategies and policies for its real estate that it identified as "guiding principles" more than a decade ago. [source: State Auditor Report No. 25-11, p. 35]
In October 2021, OHA bought two commercial properties for $47 million: 500 N. Nimitz Highway and a partial interest in the adjacent Iwilei Business Center. [source: State Auditor Report No. 25-11, p. 35]
It said it intended to redevelop them. [source: State Auditor Report No. 25-11, p. 35]
The Auditor wrote that "without guidelines and criteria, OHA had no roadmap and little understanding of potential costs to redevelop." [source: State Auditor Report No. 25-11, p. 35]
The audit also found that OHA had not developed its Kakaʻako Makai lands, which it received from the State more than 10 years ago, after it "spent more than $6.5 million on consulting contracts". [source: State Auditor Report No. 25-11, p. 35]
A Ledger count of the statuses in the report shows that 11 of the audit's 22 recommendations were still open as of OHA's self-report dated April 30, 2025. [source: State Auditor Report No. 25-11, pp. 35–40]
Ten were "Partially Implemented" and one was "Not Implemented – Disagree". [source: State Auditor Report No. 25-11, pp. 35–40]
The Auditor's own summary says OHA reported 21 recommendations as at least partially done. [source: State Auditor Report No. 25-11, p. 35]
The open items include board policies setting goals for OHA's real estate, how its portfolio is split among property types, and criteria for acquiring, financing, developing and selling property. [source: State Auditor Report No. 25-11, pp. 35–40]
All are partially implemented. [source: State Auditor Report No. 25-11, pp. 35–40]
A conceptual master plan for Kakaʻako Makai is partially implemented. [source: State Auditor Report No. 25-11, pp. 35–40]
Long-range plans for each property in which OHA has an interest are partially implemented. [source: State Auditor Report No. 25-11, pp. 35–40]
Written administration procedures to carry out board real estate policies are partially implemented. [source: State Auditor Report No. 25-11, pp. 35–40]
The Auditor recommended that OHA's Board of Trustees adopt criteria for how each type of property may be used ("e.g., no golf courses, etc."). [source: State Auditor Report No. 25-11, p. 37]
"OHA does not believe this action is required," it said in its 2025 response, citing a proposed investment policy that would require staff to prepare a business case for each acquisition. [source: State Auditor Report No. 25-11, p. 37]
It also said that "the purpose for new acquisitions or ongoing management of existing assets is more relevant than the use to which the property is put," and that use "is better addressed through asset planning, which is a procedure, rather than a policy". [source: State Auditor Report No. 25-11, p. 37]
OHA had rated the same recommendation "Partially Implemented" a year earlier, in its April 30, 2024 self-report. [source: State Auditor Report No. 25-11, p. 37]
The Auditor says these statuses are as reported by OHA and are not based on an independent assessment by its office. [source: State Auditor Report No. 25-11, p. 3]
State law requires the Auditor to report each year on recommendations that have not been implemented (HRS §23-7.5). [source: State Auditor Report No. 25-11, p. 1]
The Auditor's 2026 annual report on audit recommendations has not been published as of this writing. [source: State Auditor follow-up index]
OHA's nine-member Board of Trustees is chaired by Trustee Kaialiʻi Kahele, according to the Legislative Reference Bureau's OHA directory. [source: Legislative Reference Bureau OHA directory]
OHA did not respond by the 5 p.m. HST Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026 deadline. [source: Hawai'i Ledger newsroom]
Basis. Written by the Ledger in a session on Nov. 5, 2026 from the records linked in each sentence; it says what was on the record that day, in plain words, and does not predict outcomes or take sides. What has happened since is on Statewide's page. Corrections: the corrections log.